CHENNAI: Passengers travelling from Chennai to Kochi were left high and dry at the domestic airport when their Spicejet flight was cancelled all of a sudden.
Passengers complained that no Spicejet official informed them before hand on the cancellation of the flight.
“We reached airport around 4.30 pm but were not informed about the delay. We came to know of it only when we enquired with the officials at 6.15pm,” said Akshaya, a passenger. “They initially said the flight has been rescheduled at 7.25 pm and later made the announcement about its cancellation due to technical issues,” she added.
“My grandmother passed away. We had to attend the funeral. If they had intimated us in advance, we would have taken another flight,” she said.
Initially, the airlines volunteered to return the airfare. But the passengers were furious and some yelled at the officials. The airlines then offered to provide some vacant seats to passengers.
An airport official said the Goa-Chennai-Kochi flight faced technical glitches and did not land in Chennai.
“The airlines offered three options to passengers. One was to provide few seats to passengers who have to visit Kochi urgently. They were accomodated in the next flight. The second option was to take passengers till Coimbatore and then make arrangements to take them by road. The third was to fly the passengers next day or refund the tickets,” said an airport official.
Akshaya said the airlines later made arrangements for six of her family members to travel to Coimbatore and from there by road.